In a press note issued here today, AIFUTA referred to the possibility that the Central Government may withhold its 80 per cent share for implementation of pay revision for university and college teachers in Punjab.

Referring to agitations earlier this year in support of the December 24, 1998, UGC guidelines on pay revision, the AIFUTA release charged that while the Punjab government had agreed in March to rectify lacunae in its faulty third notification, in fact the government has continued to drag its feet in the matter. "Lethargy on the part of the Punjab bureaucracy will now delay the release of the Central government's share for the proper implementation of the pay-revision and payment of arrears due since January, 1996, will remain uncertain ... It seems that the bureaucrats at the state level as well as at the Central level are colluding to delay the proper implementation of the revision of pay scales for the teachers, which they themselves are enjoying since January 1, 1996."